Okay i have been at my job at kroger for two years what I do there is stock. I work with an older woman who is about late 50's and she be looking at me from the corner of her eye all the time like she is my boss she is just a worker like me that been there way to long well she looks at me and I just continue to do my work. Also I work with the nite people and the workers are always messing around throwing things screaming yelling profanaties like they are in a circus I don't know what to do the store im at is in tx but I feel like im in a zoo. I have this one night worker who thinks im his friend and keep bothering me while im trying to put my stock up I tell his little as to leave and he don't sometime. And he had the nerve to take his camera phone out and try to take a picture of me I do not know why he was trying to take a picture of me this has been the worst job I have ever had know with the recession and everthing I really do not see a way out I know there is one but in my eyes I don't see it thanks for reading this just venting out my frustrations..
Welcome to the world of Kroger. The worst grocery chain I've ever worked for. Cut your throat one week and want you to do them a favor the next. Work the crap out of you then want more. Kroger wants to be like Publix and provide excellent customer service and pull in the $$$$ like Walmart, but don't want to hire the help or demand so much you don't have time to assist the customer because your too busy getting your hours cut and messing with KEY RETAIL. Funny how some divisions aren't cutting hours and some are. Is the Zone Managers or Store Managers looking for Kudos and Bonus's at the employees expense/and insurance?
In other words, They want to SUPER SIZE, but don't want to pay. Try pulling up to McDonalds at the drive up and tell'em you want to super size but you not paying for the extra. They'll throw your ass out of the line or call the cops.
Any of you management boys or suits out there read this, take it back to the next board meeting or conference call. If everyone and the news thought Walmart was bad, Kroger is headed down the same path if not already worse. I believe the days of long term employees is coming to an end. Kroger is gonna end up with school kids still living at home with todays work ethics and that will cost you in the long run. YOu better start looking for more charities to donate to and make write offs to.
-- Edited by oldtoys1961 on Tuesday 19th of May 2009 08:16:05 AM
Oldtoys nailed it pretty well. The older clerk was probably making sure you did things right just so she didnt have fix it later. The night crew, well Kroger hires as many of the mentally and physically handicapped they can. It gives them a tax break in my state. Welcome to Kroger. lol
oh my god Kroger I just witnessed something horrible.
Today I was in NYC, I take summer classes at an art school in New York, and I saw a man following an old asian woman and her little Asian grand daughter I think it was. He followed them for 4 blocks before making his move, I only saw all of this because they were all in front of me walking down E22nd street at the time I was walking down it. Anyways, the man kept getting closer and closer to them until finally he hit the woman with a crowbar and grabbed the girl. I immediately ran up to him as fast as I could and whistled for a cab and when it came near the license plate said fresh and it had dice in the mirror. If anything I can say that this cab was rare, but I thought "nah, forget it, yo holmes to Bel-Air!"
I pulled up to the house around 7 or 8 and I yelled to the cabbie "yo holmes, smell ya later!" I looked at my kingdom, I was finally there, to settle my throne as the prince of Bel-Air.
Kroger is all about Corporate Greed these days. They should be ashamed of themselves. You know, I could go on for hours about the level of disgust and contempt that I feel for the people who have completely ruined Kroger over the the last 10 or more years....but what would be the point? They already know..of course, and THAT is the problem. THEY KNOW...but they do not care. So what is there left to say to them? What CAN be said to them that would finally cause them to take stock of what they have done to Kroger...and to FINALLY take HEED and CARE about their employees? I suppose FIRST...they would have to start caring ...and obviously they do not. They understand perfectly well what their discontented employees wants..and have for quite some time now. They understand that we want Kroger retrogressed BACK TO what it ONCE was before corporate greed took over like a cancer. But there's a problem. Expenditure of money...they WON'T do it. Unprecedented levels of hour cuts, giving employees that have worked there for over 10 years ONLY 20 hours a week, and treating the employees like crap, what does all of that tell us?...or more importantly, what does it all illustrate for us? The convoluted and oft times incongruious death throws of a greedy conglomerate. Of course, this group of complete incompetents who have so successfully ruined Kroger with some misguided approach based on drivel that perhaps only they themselves fully understand, KNOW FULL WELL that they have ALMOST COMPLETELY ruined a once very exceptional business BUT.....of course..as they have demonstrated by their UTTER COMPLETE REFUSAL to heed the multitudes of voices PLEADING WITH THEM to return to some semblance of SANITY....they simply.....do not care. NO, you are either a competent business or a business who have some modicum of insight into what your employees might or might not want to be treated like...OR you're not! It's as simple as THAT. STOP BEING SO RELENTLESSLY AND IRREVOCABLY CHEAP!..because YOU ARE OFFENDING your employees...AND HOW!
So hard to tell who to respond to with so many anonymous posts, but the above post is a good illustration of how a lot of long-time employees are feeling working under the key retailing program. Job "restructuring", massive hour cuts, followed by more work to do in a shorter time.
All of this to help poor employees do a better job by dumbing down the systems that work well to a level that any chimpanzee can do them, and to reap higher profits.
I don't object to any business squeezing extra money out but when it gets to the point that you're burning out good employees and basically sending well trained associates to competitors, the few extra dollars quickly lose their value.
That said, I have seen key retailing successes...but when I dig a little deeper I have found the successes come because there are "tweaks" to the system. Long-term employees who have made some adjustment to the process to make it work. So the system functions because someone adjusted it to make it function. Of course, when management asks, they followed key retailing to the letter.
Employees are the front lines on this and we see the ineptness of this program. We work harder, not smarter to get the job done. Only when we stop doing things the old way and truly follow key retailing, will the full effect reach the only ones management will listen to...the customers. When they have to deal with poor service, badly stocked shelves, inaccurate pricing, and long checkout lines they will go elsewhere, then we might see a change. Just hope it isn't too late.
My problem with my strore is that some departments are given more attention by management than others. An example of this would be taking the night clerk out of the department he is scheduled to work in and putting him in meat/seafood to cover the hours of an employee who was fired for theft. (weighing "catfish" for $1lb or something and it turns out to be shrimps) I wouldnt have had a problem if everything was finished in the department that I work in but there was a full skid product that could have gone out, along with the regular duties of the department. I'm not one to confront management on the decisions but I asked them why this was done and their response was sometimes things come up and I responded this always happens to this department. I feel the meat mgr should have fixed his schedule to cover his department and not take hours away from another. I was promised that what I couldnt finish would be taken care of but I wasn't born yesterday. This kind of crap puts us behind now, which doesnt help because the first of the month is coming fast.
Indy - I know that is frustrating. Unfortunately, there are some departments that are more customer related than others. NOT more important, just more customer related. These departments tend to get more attention from management because we are a customer driven business and these departments must be covered. I totally agree with you that the manager of that department should have covered the shifts within the department, but sometimes that is not possible.
I work on the front end and I sometimes have to call people from other departments to come help run the register or bag groceries. I hate doing it because I know these guys have their own work to do and by coming up to the front end, their work is getting delayed. But there are times I have to do it. There are at least two people in each department cross trained to work the front end so that there is always a back up just in case we get insanely busy.
You did the right thing by talking to the manager about it because it reminds him that other departments suffer when they are pulled to cover another department.
Sewphisticate, I agree with what you are saying, but our department lost sales from this management decision. We had front page ad items that we had in the back that could have been stocked and weren't. Then we are confronted or hear second hand from other employee's by management wondering why there are ""too many"" holes in the department. One of these days management will recognize our side of the siutation, until then we'll have to tough it out.
Indy - that sucks! and is a prime example of how badly Kroger is managed...and it starts even higher than your unit manager. i feel for you and your department!
I have been with Camp Kroger for ten years now in both produce and dairy and this is one reason as to why I havent taken a department head position. It's not that I can't do it, it having adequate and reliable help. One person can't do it all.
i would not want to be a department head either...with the way kroger is managed from corporate, any of those positions is a pressure cooker. way too much stress from both ends with absolutely zero support. that is why i hate having to call anyone from another department to help out on the front end. i know the departments are understaffed as it is and if i call them away, then their work isn't getting done and they will have to answer for that regardless of the situation...it's a very bad corporate decision. it think that those who are making the decisions need to come down to the store level and work for a year or so in order to understand what is really happening in the store instead of what they are seeing reflected in the paperwork.
Exactly sewphisticate, i've had 2 grocery crews with past food chains. And Kroger is by far the worst for squeezing as much and wanting more from each employee. Theire like crack addicts. Givem' alittle and they want more, givem' more when they bitch for it and then they want even more. When they can't get anymore they throw you to the side.All this while some suit pushing a pencil making the decisions and doesn't do a days real labor. Not enough staff in the depts. Our Dairy has a 1 FT at night and they rob from drygoods when it gets to heavy an order. The day worker is usless in filling just milk and eggs. Then gets put on the front. Hire some damn people Kroger to work in these departments.